DENTON – Greg Abbott defended his appearance Tuesday with ’70s rocker Ted Nugent, saying he’d rather be associated with the abrasive Motor City Madman than be Wendy Davis connected to the president.

“I don’t think there is anybody in the state that is disliked more than Barack Obama,” Abbott said after a get-out-the-vote rally with about 75 supporters at El Guapo’s restaurant.

Abbott, the attorney general and Republican front-runner for governor, came under fire after inviting Nugent to join him on the campaign trail.

Just last month, Nugent called Obama a “subhuman mongrel,” and has described feminists and female politicians as “varmints,” “fat pigs,” and “dirty whores.”

He has used the “N-word” in radio interviews and been called racist for his views on blacks.

Both Republican and Democratic opponents slammed Abbott for staging joint appearances with Nugent on Tuesday in Denton and Wichita Falls.

Lisa Fritsch, a primary opponent who has been a leading voice for black Republicans, said Abbott put the election and future of their party at risk by offending key voters who “are leaving this party in droves.”

“It is sad, insensitive and arrogant in 2014 for seasoned Christian conservative leadership to not know better than to keep company with a noted misogynist and bigot, no matter how fervent his love of guns and the Constitution,” said Fritsch, a talk radio host.

One of the draws of Nugent, 65, is his full-throated embrace of gun rights and hyper-patriotism.

It was those stances that Abbott chose to highlight, calling Nugent, “a fire for freedom in this country,” who believes in the Constitution and Second Amendment.

He told reporters he was unfamiliar with Nugent’s inflammatory statements.

Democratic rival Davis seemed well aware of them.

“Greg Abbott’s embrace of Ted Nugent is an insult to every Texan – every man, woman, husband and father,” the Fort Worth senator said in a statement.

The Abbott-Nugent appearance drew national attention. And Abbott addressed the flare-up by saying he would rather be associated with Nugent than be tied, like Davis, to the policies of the president.

“She represents the liberalism of Barack Obama that is so bad for Texas,” Abbott said. “If there’s this effect-by-relationship they want to trump up, then that’s a game that will be to the detriment of the Davis campaign because of their ties to Barack Obama.”

Speaking to the crowd, Abbott spoke of his defense of the Voter ID law and constitutional freedoms. Nugent introduced the attorney general.

Nugent assailed Democrats, saying they want to make people dependent on government. He said liberals have turned his hometown of Detroit into “a cesspool” and have ruined Chicago, California and New York.

“Everything they get their hands on, they destroy everything. I want Texas to remain Texas,” he said, adding that Abbott will keep the Lone Star State free.

After Abbott's speech, reporters tried to interview Nugent, but campaign staffers led him away and said he would not take questions.

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